My birthday dinner took place at Movida. The Good Food Guide gives it two hats (like Michelin stars but maybe slightly lower standard. I think it's between an AA rosette and a star) and calls it Modern Spanish and Euro-cool. It's situated in one of Melbourne's many alleyways which is decorated with graffiti. The entrance is modest and the restaurant itself fairly low key in decor. It probably seats about 30 people and the largest party there was a group of 6 and only one table was big enough for that. There were a group of ladies who split into two small groups of 4 and sat apart from each other. There is a small bar area for walk ins but the queues for that amass pretty quickly.

Our waitress was friendly and explained how to order. We had pre dinner drinks; sangria for me and a beer for Steve. The sangria was very good and far too easy to drink! I hadn't had breakfast or lunch bar a big slice of chocolate birthday cake so was super hungry and we ordered over and above what she recommended. The downside was we would pay the price by feeling far too full and it would have been nice if she'd have told us we'd over ordered.

Anyway back to the food...

We ordered 4 tapas each as we were informed each was bite sized. We both had the Anchoa (pictured) which had been recommended to me by Karly from work. Her words were "Order the bruschetta anchovy thing with tomato sorbet. I though I was going to hate it but I loved it so much." The "bruschetta anchovy thing" is actually hand filleted Cantabrian artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet. The anchovy was very good, meaty and didn't turn into mush / powder when being chewed. The whole thing was a savoury, salty sensation and the smoked tomato sorbet very unusual. The sorbet made my sensitive teeth tingle slightly but was really good to wash the saltiness of the anchovy away leaving a smoky tomato taste funnily enough!

Other tapas we had were spiced chicken escabeche tapa on crisp crouton was a chicken, mayonnaise, coleslaw delight with a real sharp tang to it and was very tasty. The croqueta; fried silky croquette flavoured with jamon and egg were a delight. Light crispy crumb and a very nice cheesy ham filling. Like an exceptionally good Findus crispy pancake!

We also had the roast lamb cutlet encased in a Catalan pork and paprika paté. I enjoyed this and found the meat juicy. The pork and paprika paté was tasty and it was topped with a vivid green dollop of salsa verde which cut through the fatty smokiness of the pork and lamb.

After the tapas we moved onto the sharing dishes called raciones. And this was our downfall in that we ordered far too much. The cecina (see pic) came first which is air dried Wagyu with poached egg and truffle foam. One of the partners at Steve's workplace said it was a must have and I'd read about it in various magazines and blogs The waitress explained that basically you pop the egg, smush it with the foam and eat it with a bit of the Wagyu. I don't really know how to describe it, except the Wagyu was salty and beefy like Parma ham only not ham and the egg and truffle were light and creamy. Together it was a very rich and decadent dish and definitely meant for sharing. It is far too rich to have all to oneself.

We also had some portabello mushrooms done in oloroso sherry, a braised rabbit leg in white wine and onions and lamb breast slow roasted in a Pyrenees tomato sauce. There was a long wait between the mushrooms and the rabbit and then an even longer wait between rabbit and lamb. By the time we'd had the rabbit we were actually really full and if we could have skipped the lamb we would.

Although the portions aren't huge, each dish is a massive flavour hit. Everything is delicious and the strength and intensity of the flavous really whack you around the mouth and all over your face! Therefore too many courses are just too much and cause the whole meal to feel imbalanced. A salad or something more subtle would have lightened the load. Each dish on its own cannot be faulted but I think we over ordered and chose items that were very intense so when you have them course after course it becomes hard work.

We'd definitely return because everything was undoubtedly super tasty but we're wiser as to how to order so next time it will be perfect!